Babysitting Harry
by Two Drunk Elves
Summary: Lily and James went out, leaving Sirius to babysit. Was that REALLY the wisest choice...?


A/N:

Dobby: Hiya, it's us again!

Winky: Yeah, here's another story just for you!

Dobby: This time, it's about baby Harry and Sirius.

Winky: Siriusly (Dobby: NOT THAT CRACK AGAIN!) you should read it!

With a deafening roar and a loud thud, Sirius Black landed his motorcycle in the Potters' yard. He jumped off and went inside the house, ducking the Bat Bogey Hex sent at him by reflex.

Laughing, he said, "Oh, come on, Lil, it wasn't that bad, I even remembered to avoid your rose bushes!"

The red-haired woman who would have been kind-looking if she didn't have an expression on her face that resembled a saber-tooth tiger's scowled more.

"How many times have I told you, Sirius Mordicus Black, NOT to fly on that thing here?"

"A few million, Lily, but personally I never get tired of hearing it!" replied Sirius cheerfully. "Why are you so tense anyway?" he added, looking more serious (no pun intended).

Lily tried to smile, but couldn't quite pull it off. "It's nothing, really," she said with an unconvincing laugh.

"No, Lily, I can tell something's wrong, what is it?" asked Sirius, intent on getting the truth out of her.

"Well, it's really stupid, but James wanted us to go out somewhere, but I can't find a decent babysitter for Harry!" She sighed heavily. "I've looked everywhere! We'll probably have to stay and look after him ourselves."

Sirius' eyes lit up. He had an idea. "I'll take care of it, Lily!" he said enthusiastically. Seeing her skeptical expression, he added hastily, "No, really! W-I can take care of Harry fine! He's just a baby, what could go wrong? You and James go and enjoy yourselves!"

Lily's face softened. "Well…alright, then."

She led him through to the living room where they saw James holding a squirming Harry.

"Say 'Daddy'," said James smiling at his son. Harry gave a happy gurgle, but didn't say anything.

"'Daddy'," repeated James hopefully. Harry waved his chubby little arms, knocking James' glasses askew. James straightened them with one hand, holding Harry with the other.

"Mummy!" said Harry suddenly, holding his arms out to Lily. "Mummy!"

James reluctantly handed Harry over to Lily. "Say 'Daddy'," he said again, not really expecting anything.

"That's right, Harry," crooned Lily. "Say 'Daddy is a git'."

Harry chuckled. "Addy git!" he waved his tiny hands around enthusiastically.

James however, didn't think this was very funny. "Lily, you're corrupting him!" He looked around, and for the first time, noticed that Sirius was there.

"Padfoot! What're you doing here?"

Sirius grinned. "I've come to babysit! You and Lily go out and enjoy yourselves! Harry is in good hands with me!" He said all of this a little too brightly, something that caused James to look at him suspiciously.

"Are you sure it's going to be alright?" he asked anxiously.

"Of course it'll be alright, he's just a baby!" said Sirius impatiently.

Lily smirked, still holding Harry who was twirling a lock of her dark red hair around his finger. "This, coming from the man who thought 'watching the baby' meant swinging him around the room!"

Sirius felt his face heat up. "He loved it!" he protested as the couple screamed with laughter.

"He was sick all over Peter!"

Sirius tapped his foot, waiting for their laughter to subside. "Now that you've finally finished having a joke at my expense," he said, somewhat miffed, "you can go on your way and I'll watch over Harry."

Lily looked like she was about to protest, but James sent her a puppy-dog look and she gave in, allowing him to get out her coat.

As Lily handed Harry over to Sirius, he held out his arms and cried, "Paddy! Paddy Paddy Paddy Paddy!" James banged his head on the wall. Repeatedly.

Before they Disapparated, Lily said warningly to Sirius, "Just don't swing him around the room!" Sirius smiled and waved.

Once they were gone, Sirius waited a moment or two to make sure that Lily wasn't going to pop back and remind him not to do something else. Once he had ascertained that they weren't coming back, he took a pinch of glittery green powder and threw it in the fireplace.

Into the roaring green flames, he yelled, "Moony!"

Soon, a spinning figure appeared in the flames and a second later, Remus Lupin was climbing out of the fireplace and brushing off his robes.

"What is it, Padfoot?" he asked urgently. "Where are Lily and James? Is everyone alright?"

Sirius hurriedly calmed his fears. "Relax Moony, everyone's fine! Lily and James went out for dinner and left me to babysit Harry."

Remus' jaw dropped. "Lily left YOU alone with Harry? She left YOU in charge?"

Sirius smiled proudly and drew himself up to his full height. "That's right, Moony, and you and I are going to train Harry to become a little Marauder! We'll start with flying!" Sirius drew a miniature broom out of his pocket. "The Baby Nimbus! State-of-the-art baby racing broom! Come on, to the garden!"

Remus rolled his eyes, but picked up Harry who gurgled delightedly and squealed, "Moony! Moony Moony Moony Moony!" Remus laughed as Harry tried to grab his nose.

They all went outside to the garden where Sirius held out the Baby Nimbus. It floated in the air, at just the right height for a baby to mount. Remus placed Harry on the broom and they waited, holding their breath. Harry wobbled a little at first, but then was able to move around the garden.

Until a particularly large wobble which made him fall off. Remus and Sirius rushed to his side, but Harry unhurt, just gurgled happily.

"He's a natural," said Sirius, beaming proudly down at his godson. "I knew it! All Marauders are awesome at Quidditch!"

Remus cleared his throat, his eyebrows raised.

"Well," amended Sirius. "You weren't so bad, Moony, except for that time when you screeched and fell off your broom or the time when…" he trailed off at the look on Remus' face.

"Paddy!" cried a little voice from somewhere around Sirius' knees. "Paddy Paddy Paddy!" Harry held out his little arms, wanting to be picked up. Sirius chuckled and picked him up, and the three of them went inside.

The rest of the evening passed by alarmingly quickly, even by Marauder standards.

The three of them went for a ride on Sirius' motorcycle (or as Harry called it, a 'mottysickle', which was quite uneventful except for when Sirius dropped Harry on purpose then dived to catch him before he fell. Harry had squealed in delight the whole way down and was very excited when Sirius caught him again.

Later, for dinner, Sirius tried some of Harry's baby food; he grimaced and decided to give him a PROPER meal. After their heavy PROPER meal, Sirius and Remus relaxed and played games with Harry.

In the middle of a game of Go-Fish – in which Harry was thrashing them both – Harry fell asleep. Sirius picked him up and was about to take Harry to his bedroom when he heard twin pops in the hall which meant that Lily and James were home.

Mind racing, he shoved Remus in the nearest closet and looked futilely around the room. The Baby Nimbus was lying on the dining room floor, too far away to reach; there were three sets of Go-Fish cards instead of two; the motorcycle was in a totally different part of the garden to before and Harry's baby food was lying untouched while quite a bit more of the PROPER food was gone than a meal for one person.

Sirius decided that he was not going to get out of this one, so after some quick thinking, he raced to the couch and lay down, pretending to be asleep with Harry in his arms sleeping peacefully.

Lily and James came into the room, both looking very happy and as if they had enjoyed themselves immensely. Lily's happy expression vanished as she took in the Baby Nimbus, the untouched baby food and the motorcycle. Her mouth thinned with every second.

She looked furiously around for Sirius and saw him lying on the couch with Harry. At once, all her anger vanished. They both looked so peaceful. She gently picked up Harry, careful not to wake either of them.

Despite her efforts, Harry woke up and groggily surveyed the room. "Moony?" he asked in a sleepy voice. Realizing that Remus was not in the room, he woke up wider. "Moony!" he said loudly, sounding as if he were about to cry.

Lily attempted to calm him. She stroked his untidy black hair and whispered, "Shhh. Remus isn't here today, Harry." While she was doing this, a small sneeze came from a closet in the living room. Lily was too preoccupied to notice it. She rocked Harry and kept stroking his hair until he fell asleep. She carried him upstairs to his crib.

All the time Lily had been pacifying Harry, James had been looking at Sirius with a shrewd and calculating look. His gaze had strayed to the living room closet when a small sneeze was heard. As soon as Lily was out of sight, he called softly to the room at large, "Padfoot, Moony, it's safe now!"

Remus emerged from the closet looking slightly disheveled and sneezed once more. Sirius got up from the couch where he had been pretending to be asleep.

"Baby Nimbus, huh?" asked James, grinning.

Sirius grinned back. "He's a natural. Only fell off once."

James grinned more widely and looked around the room, surveying everything. "I won't ask what happened while we were gone. I don't want to know."

"Fair enough," replied Remus. "Well, Padfoot, Prongs, I'd better get going. Bye!" He Disapparated with a pop.

Suddenly, out of the blue, Sirius said, "Do you know Harry has Lily's eyes?"

James smiled and tried to look exasperated. "You've only said so about a million times! How about saying how much Harry looks like ME?"

Sirius gave him a mock shocked look. "Like YOU? But Harry's CUTE!"

James retaliated with a playful shove and a mock glare. "And I'm not?"

"Do I really need to answer that?"

The two burst out laughing and for a long time, couldn't stop.

Dobby: How was that? This story was a tribute to chokes up Sirius Black…

Winky: sob sob sob sob sob sob

Dobby: …A noble and brave man who was kind to house elves…

Winky: sob sob sob sob sob sob

Dobby: sob …his death is a great loss to wizards and house-elves alike…

Winky: sob sob sob sob sob sob

Dobby: …His time on earth was too short…

Winky: sob sob sob sob sob sob

Dobby: …He is probably up in Heaven reading this fic and laughing at what sentimental idiots we is being sob…

Winky: DIE KREACHER!

Dobby: …Please read and review, all fans of Sirius Black. Your message will find him in heaven.


End file.
